Welcome back to the daily poem here on the Closer Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern.

Today's poem is by a contemporary American poet named Alberto Rios.

He was born in 1952.

He was the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona, a position which he held up until about 2015.

He is the author of many poetry collections and also some short story collections, including

poetry collection from Copper Canyon Press called A Small Story About the Sky.

In 1981, he received the Walt Whitman Award for his collection, Whispering to Fool the Wind,

and he also has served as the Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

The poem that I'm going to read today is called Don't Go Into the Library.

And I actually saw this poem shared by poets.org on their Twitter feed,

and I kind of liked it.

And I thought, that's a poem that our listeners on the podcast would enjoy.

So again, here is Don't Go Into the Library by Alberto Rios.

The library is dangerous.

Don't go in.

If you do, you know what will happen.

It's like a pet store or a bakery.

Every single time you'll come out of there holding something in your arms.

Those novels with their big eyes and those no-nonsense,

all muscle greyhounds and dobermans, all non-fiction and business,

cuddly when they're young, but then the first page is turned.

...